Episode 1 - 50 Years Among The Stars
A Memoir: An Insider's True Tales from the Hollywood killing fields.
Welcome to FIFTY YEARS AMONG THE STARS.
How To Succeed and Survive In Television
These are stories about the stars and the shows I have been involved with during my long career in television- the ups and downs, the hits and misses, the joys and regrets. If you wonder what it’s like to be in this wonderful, challenging world of Show Business……If you are on the outside, dreaming of being in “The Business”……If you are already in “The Business” and struggling to build a career…….Please join me on my journey.
I’ll be posting once a week. In 50 years I have produced or written more than 1,000 hours of television, including variety shows, situation comedies, game, talk and reality shows—both series and specials- everything but drama. Plus half a dozen TV movies, one feature film and some theatre as well. My productions have received a total of 50 Emmy nominations. I, personally, have been nominated for 11 Emmys and 4 Writers Guild awards. (P.S. I have never won any.)
The stars I’ve worked with begin with Mel Brooks, Sid Caesar, Carol Channing, Doris Day and Merv Griffin and run through the alphabet to Danny Kaye, Barry Manilow, Bob Newhart, Frank Sinatra, Donna Summer and Dick Van Dyke. For the full list, check out my C.V. - ERNEST CHAMBERS-- on IMDB..
My curriculum, based on my personal experiences, will include : How to break into “The Business”, Getting That Big Break, Finding An Agent, Developing relationships, Selling A Show, Fuck-You Money, Schadenfreude (I’ll explain.), and last but not least, Yiddish As A Second Language.
Over the years, the television industry continues to change, but nothing has really changed. for writers and producers. The challenges to breaking in and sustaining a career remain the same. Dealing with networks and cable channels, streaming services and the people who control distribution and production—and the money-- has not changed. Stars are the same today as they were when I arrived in L.A. thinking—mistakenly-- that all you needed to succeed and survive was talent.
Here, for whatever it is worth, is what I have learned from both my successes and my failures, writing on staff and as a free lance, being a producer and a development executive, creating and running shows, getting shows on the air and keeping them there. What I did and did not do. What I should have done. And what was done to me. My good fortune, my smart choices, my dumb mistakes and the insights I have learned from them all.
In some cases, names have been withheld to protect the guilty, the inept and the insane. In any case, their names are irrelevant because the people in Television today are carbon copies of those who came before.
I have a lot of experiences to share. It would help a lot if you let me know what subjects you’d like to know more about or what questions you’d like to have answered.
I am looking forward to this. I hope you are, too
ERNIE CHAMBERS
COMING ATTRACTIONS:
THE FRANK SINATRA SPECIAL Frank Sinatra starred in 15 network television specials. My partner and I produced “FRANCIS ALBERT SINATRA DOES HIS THING”, with guest stars Diahann Carroll and The Fifth Dimension. The day we taped, Mia Farrow was divorcing Frank. Needless to say, it was one of the most difficult days of my career. More on that story in a post to come later:
“THE 2,000 POUND GORILLA”.